maxim

Sometimes the underground is a surreal place to be.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Taureg Rock

A new single track, and a stupid thing I made playing around with my new SU-10 handheld sampler with it just because. Off the Group Inerane album.

A5 - Nadan Al Kazawnin

bullshit SU-10 screw-around

Friday, July 24, 2009

it's been a long night

one of many. here's something everyone should have/hear. please comment if you download or listen.

Lamont Dozier - Going Back to My Roots (1979)

Sometimes you just can't sleep.

Mahapurursh Misra - Indian Drums

Last one for tonight, an old tabla LP I picked up a few years ago. Throwing it up so my tabla-playing roommate can grab it. Can't seem to find any mention of it online aside from some old bookstore selling it on a few sites, so no info. I think it used to be owned by a DJ because there's some kind of locked groove on the last track which I could never fix. Nothing but tabla and tampura here, if that's your thing then enjoy. Note the tampura playing 'Greensleeves' in the background of Dadra-Tal! Only just noticed that. 60s traditional music records othered the hell out of whatever culture they were attempting to document, didn't they?

Mahapurursh Misra - Indian Drums (1966)


(by the way, when did blogspot stop accepting image uploads? very frustrating to realize I'm leeching from other sites without realizing it)

GRABBA GRABBA TAPE - Kurt Kobaya y G.R.O.X. Man Odia Nirvana





Quote:
"They’re called “drunken Daft Punk” and “too pop to be noise and too noise to be yummy,” but Grabba Grabba Tape are the definitely the noisiest and weirdest shit to come out of Madrid in a minute.

Formed in 2004, Grabba Grabba Tape, Gros-OH!-Vot and Lol-OH!-Vot, are more like Devo on crack. Their track “Bue da Fixe” is extremely catchy, Mr. Roboto noise with an interesting ending that brings to mind Snoop Dogg after a gay orgy with Kraftwerk and Devo.

The band has played festivals such as the Primavera Sound Festival, Mira Mama Soy Raro, Pegatina Rock Fest, and Callarte and is poised to become the next classic cult band.

Out now is their latest release “Kurt Kobaya y G.R.O.X. Man Odia Nirvana” released by GSSH! GSSH! Records – the label run by Lol-OH!-Vot.

GSSH! GSSH! just relocated guerrilla-style to Lisbon from Madrid and, according to their Web site, they forgot their street so they’ll get back to us."


(that's a juno 106 on top with the label over the roland logo by the way)

This is a rip from the vinyl release. As far as I can tell there seems to be an actual fault in the pressing on Baila El Naja! Naja! which is what causes the skips (the grooves seem to cease existing at regular points, but only for that track so who knows if it's intentional). Recommended for fans of Polysics I guess, it's very 'new technopop' with little apparent sonic influence from the old Japanese school which informed that late 90s scene. Think Japanather fallen in love with analog synths. All vocals vocoded, it's even the drummer who sings!



GRABBA GRABBA TAPE - Kurt Kobaya y G.R.O.X. Man Odia Nirvana (2006)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ismaël Lô - Xalat



Ismael Lo is a Senegalese musician who makes "Mbalax" music, which combines aspects of western pop with Cuban and Senegalese rhythms. From the wiki (There's a more complete biography on the Allmusic page):

He was born in Dogondoutchi in Niger on 30 August 1956 to a Senegalese father and a Nigerian mother. Shortly after Lo's birth the family returned to Senegal where they settled in the town of Rufisque, near the capital Dakar. He is a versatile singer and artist, and besides his singing abilities, he also plays the guitar and the harmonica.

In the 1970s Lo studied at the School of Art in Dakar later joining the popular group Super Diamono, but leaving the group in 1984 to start a solo career. Over the next four years Lo recorded five popular solo albums.

This is his 1984 solo album, Xalat. Soft guitar interplay with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and an upfront brass section. Highly recommended for fans of highlife music, although not quite the same as far as I know. I'm really not as familiar with this specific type of music as I'd like to be, I found this album by chance and picked it up as soon as I'd had a listen.

Ismaël Lô - Xalat (1984)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Joey Beltram - Live Mix



Title says it all, features Live Mix of Energy flash as seen here and a few other classics.



Joey Beltram - Live Mix (1997)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Hiroshi Watanabe - Genesis



One of my all time favorite techno artists. One of the first techno CDs I was pointed to by more informed friends was the album under his Kaito pseudonym, Hundred Million Light Years which I cannot possibly recommend highly enough and may post in the future. Somewhere between UR and early 90s teutonic trance (back before everything went wrong). I've never heard anything by him, under any pseudonym, that wasn't absolutely beautiful music.

The Universe will hold us. We are just one tiny part of it.
Think about the Earth, it is but one small planet in the Universe. So this makes us a family.
No war - only love, peace, a newborn baby, children, humanity, communication, nature, cadence, sensitivity, crying, laughing, spririt, giving.
Life is at times not easy but we were born here.
We are living together.
Here.


Hiroshi Watanabe - Genesis (2006)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Kenyatta HiFi - Meditation Dub



A set of ten roots dub tracks produced by Winston Riley sometime in the 70s. Horrifically low quality bootleg, just as it should be. Sounds like the record was mastered from another record, in fact. Odd problems with channels, there's at least one very large pop in the groove (I bought it brand new a few years ago and have only played it twice before now) and one track literally restarts in the middle of it. It's so bad this might even be a lathe bootleg, although the effort involved in that seems unlikely.

That said, there's some nice tracks here. At some point I need to sample Glambling Dub. The B-side is better than the A, in my opinion.

Kenyatta HiFi - Meditation Dub (197?)

VA - Han-Ichi Independents


Alright, up today we have one of the gems of my tape collection. It's been posted elsewhere in various forms (actually having trouble figuring out where I found it in the first place, come to think of it), but this rip is from my copy of the original cassette. It remains in raw, full-side v0 mp3 form, since I don't think cutting it up into 'tracks' makes any sense. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.

This release was a recap/medley of live performances for a 1983 Japanese Anarchist festival. Features bands such as A*MUSIK, Skeleton Crew (Fred Frith/Tom Cora), Remedy Control, and at least one or two noteworthy Japanese-name acts who I can't seem to remember and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time digging up the other blogs that have posted this in the past (I BELIEVE one of them is Zuno Keisatsu but I can't read Japanese at all). If anyone wants to translate the cover in the comments, there's a larger copy of the scan in the file. Anyway, I'm hoping to start varying up the posts from my increasingly regular dance single rips, so look for more like this in the future. Enjoy.

VA - Han-Ichi Independents (1983)

Monday, July 6, 2009

Adamski - LiveAndDirect and Doctor Adamski's Musical Pharmacy

Got two classic full albums from the heyday for you tonight, Adamski's first two full-lengths. Classic tracks in high quality, sounds a bit dated but fun nonetheless.

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Adamski - LiveAndDirect (1989)

Can sound horribly dated to the uninitiated now, but when I first heard this back in 1990 amongst other tunes, it was a revelatory experience. If only I had been maybe a few years older than my then 16 years, perhaps I would have been able to attend one of the orbital raves where these tracks were recorded but that didnt stop me appreciating the energy and enthusiasm of both Adamski and the crowds you can hear whistling and yelling in the background.

With N-R-G crashing into the UK charts in that same year, bringing the bleeps and beats to the ears of older generations who derided its cheap and cheerful sound; it became a bit like a beacon to people like myself, representing Our music precisely because older people didnt understand it. With the worldwide hit of Killer later that year (with Seal on vocals), Adamski became one of the first sort of dance pop stars. Unfortunately the follow-up lp to LiveAndDirect was a disappointment and very much over-hyped. Still, this lp stands as testament to what one guy with a sampler, keyboard and computer can do live.

Respect. The Bassline Changed My Life.


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Adamski - Doctor Adamski's Musical Pharmacy (1990)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Series 2: Electronic Disco

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Second post of the evening. Three electronic disco singles for your perusal, first up is Cheri Lewis' cover of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself". Competent cover, not much to it though. However, the second single is an absolutely stellar cover of "Je T'aime (Moi Non Plus) by Vicious Pink Phenomena (Youtube preview here). The b-side on that one is a very neat bit of proto-techno that could have come out of detroit five years later, almost like what I'd imagine the detroit guys were inspired by. It's also 8 and a half minutes long and almost like two separate songs. Highlight of the post, honestly.

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Last is "Living in Video" by Trans-X, an up-tempo synth-pop tune with a lot of vocoder. According to the album discog page, it was made using some combination of Roland Jupiter 4 and 6, CSQ 600, TR-808, Korg Vocoder and Polysix, Oberheim OB8, DMX, DSX Elka Synthex, Electric guitar, Simmons and Mattel drums.

Just watch the video. Trust me.




Series 2 #7: Electronic Disco

One Plus One - 1+1 EP

Four track EP from this obscure (only one mention of them on the internet and a track on a discogs comp) NJ minimal synth duo, featuring a synthy cover of 'Time Has Come Today' and three other synth rock tracks. Reminds me a little of Nash the Slash without the virtuosity and much more of a punk edge to it. To guess, that's an 808 and a pro one or minimoog, alongside some guitar and bass. Enjoy.

One Plus One - 1+1 EP